The Best Exercises For Women Over 40

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This Is the Dessert Phase of My Life

Robin McGraw is best known as a daily fixture on Dr. Phil, but as faithful viewers of the show know, she’s a dynamic woman with wisdom of her own. In this essay, McGraw explores the one thing that she feels is most important to her health and happiness — and how at 63 years old, she’s having the most fun she’s ever had.

My outlook on aging, as with most things, comes down to a choice. From a very young age, I’ve always been a person who makes a choice and sticks to it. Every day I choose to live my life and do everything I can to embrace the Lord, my body, and my family in the most positive way possible.

I don’t want to say that I haven’t had challenges as I’ve grown older. We all face challenges. Nothing is a free ride, and nothing is always easy, period. I don’t mind getting older at all. I choose to welcome whatever challenges come my way.

Throughout my life, I’ve embraced each year and each age. I appreciate my life as it is. I make decisions to look ahead and plan ahead. I stay on top of my health. I love and adore my husband, sons, and daughter-in-law. And to think that I am a grandmother? I am in the dessert phase of my life! That’s what I call it, because that is exactly how I see it!

I had no idea what this phase of my life would be like, and I’m so glad I’m here. I am loving every minute of it!

I have always believed I was put on this earth to be a wife and mother — and now a grandmother! I had no idea what this phase of my life would be like, and I’m so glad I’m here. I am loving every minute of it!

But again, nothing is perfect. Getting older does have its limits. I have noticed changes in my body and mind. I used to be a demon in the gym and worked out every day in my 20s, 30s, 40s, up until my mid-50s. I still work out, but not like I used to. In this phase of my life, I can’t do anything as feverishly as I could before. I’ve slowed down a bit, and I realize that I have to rest this body and I have to rest this mind. I take some time at the end of the day to sit down, reflect, and regenerate. I never used to do that.

When my granddaughter was born, I started to really feel the passage of time. I didn’t notice it so much when my own children started getting older. We moved to L.A. when our youngest, Jordan, was 15. I would take him to driver’s ed then, and now he’s 30. That doesn’t make me feel old! Our first-born, Jay, is 37 and the father to my two beautiful grandbabies. He’s successful and thriving. That doesn’t make me feel old either!

But our granddaughter, Avery Elizabeth, turned 7 in March, and our grandson, London Phillip, will turn 6 in August. I cannot believe it! And when I think about that, that’s when I start to notice how quickly time is going by. Avery’s birth acts as a before-and-after point in my life, and I mark the passage of time around when she was born. It still doesn’t mean I mind growing older!

Why? Because the older I get, the more fun I am having! There is no such thing as the perfect decade. Every decade I’ve experienced, while I was in it, I thought it was the most fun — but then I get into the next one and realize it is even better and more fulfilling than the last! I believe in your 40s that you are right in the middle of living the life you’ve created. In my 50s, I got to see the great rewards of the life Phillip and I had built. Now that I am in my 60s, I get to truly enjoy not only every moment of the life Phillip and I have created but the lives our sons have created as well. I think it’s the best!

Every decade I’ve experienced, while I was in it, I thought it was the most fun — but then I get into the next one and realize it is even better and more fulfilling than the last!

The alternative to getting older is not what you want. Be proud of what you create every year. I have two grown men as my children. Would I want them back at home in their teens so that I can be younger? No! Do I wish I were younger? No! That means I would take away the years that they have lived and the precious moments I have seen in their lives.

Age is just a process that you can choose to embrace and decide what it is you want. I suggest slow down and enjoy it. I am so excited to see what lies ahead for me. I am having the time of my life, and I am going to continue loving every second of it!

I Am Passionate About Aging — Until I Am Not!

The Gift of the Younger Man

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